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Pocket change: Vince Young slashed, sprinted and spun his way to a pile of honors at Texas. But to excel in the NFL, he first needs to learn the pro quarterback ABCs

Sporting News, The, June 30, 2006 by Matt Crossman

THE NFL EDUCATION OF VINCE YOUNG IS A DAUNTING PROJECT. He must revamp his footwork. He has to figure out how to read complex defenses, where blitzes are coming from and when to apply his free-lance skills to a structured offense. But he can't do any of that butt-naked. A few weeks ago, Young returned from a hard day of practice at the Titans' facility to an empty locker. Shoes, socks and shirts--gone, gone and gone.

Playing detective, Young quickly deduced whodunit. Not to name names, but the culprit goes by a video game name. All right. Titans cornerback Pacman Jones hid Young's stuff. Welcome to class, Vince.

THE NFL EDUCATION OF VINCE YOUNG FEATURES A WIDE ARRAY OF TEACHERS.

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Wide receivers coach Ray Sherman, as coordinator of the Vikings, slowly brought along Daunte Culpepper, a quarterback with many of the same skills as Young. Titans coordinator Norm Chow is an alchemist who for decades has brewed impressive offenses featuring young quarterbacks. Coach Jeff Fisher proved he can mold a raw quarterback when he sat Steve McNair for the better part of two years.

"(Young) has got great coaching; from head coach to coordinator, it's hard to find two better guys," says Ken Zampese, the Bengals quarterbacks coach who has played a key role in Carson Palmer's development. "I admire coach Fisher a great deal. His guys win. His guys love him. And Norm Chow is absolutely amazing."

It won't only be coaches mentoring Young. Starting quarterback Billy Volek will counsel Young while trying to hold him off at the same time. New Raven McNair, a father figure to Young, will be just a phone call away. Then, of course, there is Young's girlfriend.

Quarterbacks joining a new team struggle to learn what means what. Tango in one place might mean Cash somewhere else. Early in Young's career at Texas, his play calls were so long he couldn't get the team out of the huddle fast enough. He asked for help. Coordinator Greg Davis gave him a script and told him to practice at home in front of a mirror. He did. Problem solved.

Until he got to Nashville. "We talk in paragraphs around here when we call plays," says Chow, who joined the Titans before the 2005 season after running high-octane college offenses at BYU, N.C. State and Southern California. "He told me he wanted the scripts ahead of time so he could go home and practice."

Now, in addition to practicing in front of the mirror, Young goes through plays with his girlfriend. She tells him which play to call, and he shouts it to an imaginary huddle.

THE NFL EDUCATION OF VINCE YOUNG BRINGS UP QUESTIONS. Yikes, are there questions. Can he be a pocket passer? Should he be a pocket passer? Does he have it upstairs to be an NFL quarterback? Young is like a giant piece of marble. Maybe Michelangelo's David is in there; maybe it's all just pretty rock.

Before the draft, forecasters had him going first, second, third, fourth ... all the way to 18th. Tennessee took him third, but that didn't clear up the issue. Neither did the first few weeks of practice. Young is going to be a world-beater or a world-class bust.

The facts allow for both.

World-beater: He won 30 of 32 games as a starter for Texas. He almost single-handedly won the national championship, besting the unbestable Southern California. He is big, fast and insanely athletic. And those who know him say he's an even better person. He is humble, a great leader and eager to learn. The Rose Bowl showed Young is a freak athlete, and, Davis says, "He is a freak person."

World-class bust: Before becoming an NFL starter, Young needs to learn to take direct snaps from center, drop into the pocket, recognize defenses and throw properly and accurately. In other words, he needs to learn to play quarterback. He can't rely on his Goliath-sized skills as much. Says a rival assistant coach: "Can he get away from (Robert) Mathis and (Dwight) Freeney? Absolutely not. The guy in Miami, (Jason) Taylor? No chance. All the things that made him special in college will be reduced in the pros."

Titans coaches have mixed some calculus into Young's basic education. "We're going to bombard him with the way we play football, then we're going to fit that in with the stuff he does," Chow says.

With that bombardment has come rough moments. The Titans have nearly five times more plays than Young ran at Texas. He has struggled with his footwork and with learning all of the offensive formations. "There've been some balls that have sailed over the fence and gone into the pond," Fisher says. "But that's to be expected."

In the next few weeks, the Titans will explore what Young does well and figure out how to get that into the offense. Coaches want to blend his improvisational running with more conventional dropback passing. "There are four or five times a game where you absolutely have to make a play in the pocket," says Chow. "I'm trying to convince him of that. You have got to make it, and you cannot make it running around. Once he gets that, he's going to be phenomenal. He's not there yet."

Pocket change: Vince Young slashed, sprinted and spun his way to a pile of honors at Texas. But to excel in the NFL, he first needs to learn the pro quarterback ABCs

Sporting News, The, June 30, 2006 by Matt Crossman

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